


Somewhere, a Door Is Always Opening

by Gileonnen



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: A Vacation Home on the Edge of the EDZ, Breaking Time a Little, Daring Rescue Missions, Grim Portents from Osiris, Home Repair and Gardening, M/M, Multi, Osiris's Boyfriend-Resurrecting Machine, Vex Transformations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:47:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22012807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gileonnen/pseuds/Gileonnen
Summary: Rescued from his own death, Pahanin helps Praedyth bring Kabr back--but he finds that rebuilding their lives is as much a challenge as saving them.
Relationships: Kabr/Pahanin/Praedyth (Destiny)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 43





	Somewhere, a Door Is Always Opening

Pahanin sprints down the Corridors of Time, footsteps ringing on the simulant substrate; it sounds like marble, like glass, like the deep brass toll of a bell. All around him, the infinite reflections shudder and break like a kaleidoscope of disaster.

The gateway is ahead, closing fast. "Come on!" he screams as he draws up short to lay down covering fire. "I'm not leaving you behind again!"

"You never left us behind in the first place, you ass!" shouts Praedyth. "We'll talk about it later! Run!"

Kabr barrels past him, his sidearm out and crackling with Arc Light--he weeps radiolaria from every wound, but it's him, undeniably him, and Pahanin can barely breathe at the impossible sight of him. Then Praedyth, flinging blades of light behind; he cuts the Vex down like wheat, leaving only sizzling pools of Vex milk. Pahanin all but pushes him through the gateway.

Reality shivers and cracks. The mirrored surfaces of the Corridors of Time break and fall, leaving an endless black void pricked with distant stars. A Minotaur raises its gun, and for a moment, Pahanin sees true death coming--then his bullet strikes home in a burst of radiolaria, and he's rolling through the gateway.

He sprawls onto his back in the inescapable sunlight of Mercury. Above him, the Sundial spins gently. "We did it," he says weakly. "I still don't understand how, but we _did_ it! We're alive! All of us, alive!"

Kabr sinks down beside him and gathers up Pahanin's hand in both of his own. There are still traces of Vex here and there that may never entirely vanish, if Asher Mir is right--a skeletal fingerbone, a leg reduced to metal armature from thigh to toe. The radiolaria beginning to dry on the cut over his nose.

But the hands that hold him are still Kabr's, the Kabr's he _remembers_ , and the Vex will never take them from him again. "Have I ever told you," says Pahanin, "that you're the handsomest Titan I've ever known?"

Kabr leans down to kiss him, and his lips are soft and sweet. "I never get tired of hearing it." If there's an unfamiliar echo in his voice, it's nonetheless still his voice.

At the edge of the Sundial, Osiris clears his throat. "If you've finished," he says briskly, "I have further experiments to conduct. It will take some time for the Sundial to recharge after an expedition of this magnitude."

Pahanin had managed to forget he was there. He climbs to his feet, a touch guiltily, and tugs Kabr up after him.

"Did you get the data you needed?" says Praedyth, cool as the Neptunian wastes, as though he had been doing Osiris a favor rather than the other way around. It's ballsy. Pahanin likes it.

Osiris gives him the slightest of nods. "Your success confirms that we can use the coordinates you provided to link the Infinite Forest to the Black Garden; there is strong evidence indicating that we can also link it to the Vault of Glass. But these linkages have created pathways that others can tread. The Vanguard may not see the same utility in your discoveries that I do. Tread carefully, Guardians. There may be unexpected outcomes to this experiment, and we cannot foresee them without further study."

Praedyth only nods in return. "Thank you," he says. "If you need anything else--"

For probably the first time in Osiris's life, his face softens. "Go home, Praedyth," he says. "There is time now to rebuild what you've lost. Don't squander it."

* * *

And slowly, the three of them rebuild.

Their apartment has long since been sold off, which is a damn shame, because they'd finally managed to get it the way they liked it--and apparently their building was demolished in the Red War, so there's no hope of getting it back. Instead, the three of them pool their resources and take a tip from Suraya Hawthorne, and they rent a little farmhouse at the edge of the EDZ.

The roof is leaking in three places, and the rotten wood's a loss in one of them, so Praedyth borrows a cart and one of Hawthorne's horses and comes back with fresh timber. "I appreciate the gesture," says Pahanin, "but I'm going to need much more exciting power tools to make this place livable."

Next time, Praedyth comes back with a table saw, a nail gun, and a TIG welder, and Pahanin kisses him senseless by the woodpile.

Kabr passes his time in the kitchen garden, pulling weeds and planting--soy beans and chili peppers, sweet potatoes and onions, rows on rows of chard and kale. Pahanin helps him plant plumapple saplings with burlap around their roots, and Kabr speaks to him softly about the beans he'll grow with these trees as a lattice. He names the wildflowers he's seen on the hillsides, that he'll one day bring to line their garden: harebell and cornflower, chamomile and spindleflower. Mint and parsley and oregano in the window boxes, so that they'll never want for herbs.

Even before the Black Garden, Kabr had loved to watch things grow.

Praedyth spends most of his days in the study, on convoluted conference calls with Asher Mir and Lakshmi-2 and three iterations of Maya Sundaresh. Sometimes, Pahanin brings him a slightly-cold plate of pasta with kale, walnuts, and cheese, and he finds Praedyth and Maya finishing each other's sentences while Asher tries to get a word in edgewise. "Please come to bed eventually," says Pahanin, and he kisses the top of Praedyth's head and leaves the plate on a pile of papers.

They get a bigger bed for the master bedroom and cover it with clean, fresh sheets. On nights like these, when Praedyth is up to his ears in equations and postulates, Kabr and Pahanin sometimes stay up late together replacing pipes and support beams. It's easier when there's someone to hold the other ends of things. It's easier when Pahanin isn't glancing over gaps, trying to figure out why he's alone.

Sometimes, they curl up together on those clean sheets and relearn each other's bodies. The metal of Kabr's leg is heavy on Pahanin's thigh, but Pahanin likes the heaviness. Kabr's lips taste of chamomile and mint; his hands are sure on Pahanin's hips, his ribs, the insides of his thighs. His mouth is warm and wet on Pahanin's cock, and his hair tangles beautifully in Pahanin's hands.

When Praedyth crawls into bed with them, he curls up at Pahanin's back and holds him as Kabr brings him slowly to orgasm. "I've missed you so much," he says against Pahanin's ear. "I've missed you both _so much._ "

Pahanin turns to kiss him. Their lips fit together as they always have--but the desperation in the kiss is new; the white-knuckled grip on his hips is new, and it overwhelms and undoes him.

That night, they lie together under the blankets and listen to the house settling around them. Pahanin can tell by Kabr's breathing that he's still awake; on his other side, Praedyth is reading a dimly-lit tablet. Probably yet another thesis on Vex transformation.

It feels like they're all waiting for something. Like they've been waiting for something since they stepped out of the Corridors of Time--a signal of some kind. Permission to start living their lives again.

"Hey," says Pahanin. Kabr makes a faint noise of acknowledgment. "I like what we're building here. But I'd also like to travel again. Take a long rotation somewhere dangerous. Maybe write some new articles. Would that--"

He can't even get the question out before both of them are hugging him fiercely. "I'd like that," Praedyth says against his hair. "I'd like to be a Guardian again."

"I'd like to be a fireteam again," says Kabr. He leans over Pahanin's shoulder to kiss Praedyth's lips, and Praedyth opens to him with a cry like relief.

This time, after they make love, they sleep soundly for the first time in years beyond number.


End file.
